—Art Mazor, Principal partner and HR transformation global practice leader, Deloitte

“Many now see the ultimate objective [of enhancing employee experience] to be the creation of new value in the market, by improving the customer experience and creating new opportunities for growth.”

—Florian Wies, regional lead for country integration, Merck

“In the past, IT developed solutions that accorded with its own understanding of needs, but with little focus on actual user friendliness or the user experience. Today the latter are prioritized.”

—Jennifer Dhingra, Doctor, Healthcare

“Technology is the future. For the good of everyone, we need to learn how to use it properly so we can enjoy its benefits.”

—Casey Wahl, CEO, Recruiting Firm

“I think AI’s impact on creativity and innovation is going to be quite high because it should liberate you from those processes that a lot of people don’t like that are repetitive.”

The next wave in work

IT and HR must partner to set the groundwork for great work.

If workplace tech doesn’t feel consumer-like, you’re already behind.

IT leaders must implement workplace experience (WX) strategies.

Three surprising insights that will define your digital workplace strategy in 2020

Over the past year, Citrix surveyed thousands of business leaders and knowledge workers across a variety of industries, and the data couldn’t be clearer: You not only need the right technology, but the right approach to implementing it, to unlock your teams’ potential.

The rewards of mindful, empathetic, user-focused technology implementation show up not just in enhanced innovation and creativity, but in your organization’s bottom line. And as demographic and cultural shifts force new ways of thinking about the workplace, 1 enterprises will need to constantly consider—and put into practice—what a well-designed workplace experience looks like.

Read on for three key insights to guide the way forward.

The experience of technology does not stop at the cubicle. It flows through the workplace, powering employees’ workdays. Only recently, however, has there been any acknowledgement that caring for technology should be the shared project of IT and HR.

Data suggests that among digitally mature organizations, these once-siloed departments are moving closer together. Some businesses are going so far as to staff a Chief Employee Experience Officer to ensure the satisfaction and wellbeing of their team members. 2

Indeed, organizations leading this wave are honing in on IT’s deep-rooted and integral role in the workplace experience. But to augment, IT must adapt to employees’ work streams in such a way that it feels second nature—in a word, human. Intuitive digital tools can empower employees to achieve more, which can support HR’s retention KPIs.

The contemporary business context demands this entwined relationship—and in tomorrow’s workplaces, savvy organizations will approach HR and IT as a joint enterprise.

It may seem obvious to digitally mature organizations, but workplace technology needs to do more than just complete tasks. It needs to integrate seamlessly into the daily lives of its users. This is done through thoughtful consideration of use cases and how it can not only enhance profits, but also the employee experience.

It’s time that workplace tech took a page from consumer tech.

The best consumer technology is designed around the user. That’s why so many consumer devices are easier to use and more reliable than what employees encounter at work. Consumer devices aren’t freighted with cumbersome enterprise parameters. They don’t require complicated security procedures or abrupt shifts among applications to complete discrete tasks. Such obstacles aren’t just frustrating, they stifle focus and creativity—and prompt workers to seek work-arounds, introducing security risks.

But when technology cuts through complexity, when it neutralizes app sprawl and repetitive task overload, when it consolidates workflows into clean, easy to navigate interfaces, when it supports a healthy work-life balance—when it does all these things, team members can put more energy toward the things that truly add value: creativity and innovation.3

Tomorrow, meeting the connectivity and security needs of an increasingly mobile workforce will be table stakes. But for organizations that implement technology to enhance the employee experience, an entirely new parameter opens up: workplace experience, or WX.

Leaders who filter technology initiatives through WX thinking will unlock new workforce potentials by designing experiences around the individual. AI that learns and personalizes to individual work styles and automation that frees employees to skip mundane, repetitive tasks can empower employees to focus on initiatives that help strengthen the organization’s competitive edge.

By validating and filtering their technology initiatives through WX, companies are better equipped to battle for top talent, get their products to market quicker, achieve higher employee engagement, and maximize customer satisfaction and profits.

Before IT and HR can partner effectively, and before workplace experiences can be designed to truly unlock your teams’ creativity, you need the right platform.

Imagine your employees could access all their apps, software and desktop tools wherever they were, securely and seamlessly. Imagine a solution that could automate mundane tasks and quiet the noise that sours the employee experience. Imagine a single, safe sign-on leading team members to their full enterprise suite—with only the apps they need, and none they don’t.

Citrix Workspace empowers employees to do their best work—the work that matters—while supplying IT directors with the intelligence they need to ensure a secure work environment. The business context has shifted. Citrix Workspace equips you to meet it.

Digitally mature organizations recognize that technology is not a solution. It’s a tool to harness, deploy and, above all, personalize to power truly exceptional workplace experiences.

Who feels responsible? Personal responsibility for the employee experience.

Anticipated employee experience benefits, on average across measured tech

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit x Citrix, The Experience of Work

Source: Dow Jones Intelligence x Citrix, The New Employee Experience

All respondents C-suite

27 34

I take full personal responsibility for the employee experience across the organization.

3946

I take full personal responsibility for employee experience within my team.

24 23

I take some personal responsibility for the elements of the employee experience that are relevant to my role.

Insight 01

Insight 02

Insight 03

The next wave of work is here.In the coming decade, entire business models will be upended and solutions that once worked will be reoptimized, reimagined or scrapped. But for all the upheaval, the data is clear: Companies that champion good employee experience, implement technology intelligently and emphasize WX will have a competitive advantage.

At Citrix, we imagine a future where automation and intelligent technology pair with the unique talents of employees, helping them do their best, most innovative work.

We see a world where workplace technology is frictionless and distraction-free, where products enter market quickly, revenue grows measurably, and employee creativity has the space to take flight.

And we see a workplace where all facets of an enterprise are aligned around enhancing the employee experience—one where IT co-innovates with HR, technology feels intuitive, and WX becomes the secret sauce that powers truly disruptive enterprise innovations.

Citrix WorkspaceA platform for doing your best work

Learn more

Critical Very Important

Attracting/retaining talent

Security

Improving employee productivity

Retraining/upskilling

Facilities optimization

Solving LOB challenges

Employee feedback

Flexible/remote work

Demo shifts in workforce

Regulations/risks and compliance standards

Consumerization of workplace tech

Tracking employee productivity/engagement/satisfaction

33%

34%

30%

29%

31%

28%

26%

27%

25%

24%

24%

23%

47%

46%

50%

50%

47%

49%

51%

48%

50%

49%

49%

47%

1 Dow Jones Intelligence x Citrix, The New Employee Experience2 HR Tech News, “HR Jobs of the Future: Chief Employee Experience Officer,” Aug. 20183 Quartz Insights x Citrix

Further reading

The Economist Intelligence Unit x Citrix, “The Experience of Work.”

Quartz Insights x Citrix Research, “Priming a New Era of Digital Wellness.”

WSJ/Dow Jones Intelligence x Citrix, “The New Employee Experience.”